| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not For Every Taste,
By
This review is from: The Blue Flower (Paperback)
Cutting straight to the chase after reading the very polarized views of other reviewers: Although Penelope Fitzgerald's slender novel contains much to admire, it is most certainly not composed to be a popular entertainment, and its successes will appeal more to admirers of "literary fiction"--and, hence, to "critics"--than perhaps to the general reader. Fitzgerald presumes the reader knows something, and cares, about the late 18th Century context; she hopes we might be stimulated by imagining contemporaries of Fichte and Kant discussing their ideas; she presumes that, to us, "romanticism" is more than a word or a line from Shelly and that, by recovering, or compiling, everyday details from a time and world long lost, she can help us understand the romantic sensibility and, ultimately, Hardenberg's--and our--ambiguous longing for "the Blue Flower."I particularly enjoyed Fitzgerald's vignette approach--55 short chapters, each of which is a set piece, generally with a wry punchline--which allows Fitzgerald to view Friedrich von Hardenberg's improbable romance at odd angles. I for one marvel at this choice of subject, a decision by a professional author as seemingly improbable and hopelessly romantic as the subject itself. And yet, despite the author's absolute mastery of her material, her strong cast of winning characters, and the wonderful--although irretrievably high-brow--sense of humor suffusing the entire narrative, I never felt myself emotionally drawn in. One reads on because each page is delightful, and, for many readers (obviously, me included) this is sufficient. But on the basis of slender narrative evidence, we are expected to understand, rather than led toward empathy with, Hardenberg and his inconceivable attachment. Perhaps Fitzgerald's plan was, in writing the simplest of love stories, to avoid cluttering the universe with additional examples of cheap sentimentalism, leaving us with a "mystery of love." In different hands, the novel clearly might have become just that--dismissively sentimental. Instead, she goes the other way: Fitzgerald is a cool observer keenly attuned, in a very modern sense, to the ironies her story poses, but she never truly enages our hearts.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Penelope is like retsina,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Blue Flower (Paperback)
An acquired taste. She's acidic and ruthlessly matter-of-fact. She writes about the German Romantics without the slightest trace of romanticism in her prose. Her writing is an exercise in hiding. You have to turn over the rocks. This is not a "great read" if by that one thinks of a "page turner." She is not an accessible writer and doesn't try to be. Nothing actually happens in this book. That annoys a lot of people who seem to think that this is somehow "shallow." This is not a shallow book at all. The reader has to do some of the work, that's all. Historically, this is a strange and unaccustomed area for the American reader. My three star rating is actually very high. I never give fives (OK, to a musical group I like) so four is tops. Three is really good. (I wish we could give half-stars). It might help to read some other Penelope Fitz books first. "Offshore," is one of my favorites. Blue Flower is not for everyone. EKW
31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a souffle, not Hamburger Helper.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Blue Flower (Paperback)
The reviewer who wrote you either love this book or hate it is right. Those who hate it seem to do so because it did not live up to their preconceived notions of what "a great book" should be. Obvious plot development, blatant character growth, a quick rundown of history ... if those are the only reasons you read, definitely don't get this book. I thought it was a light, wonderful collection of vignettes that brought the world of late 18th century Germany to life. *But* I wasn't reading to see how Sophie would develop into a girl worthy of a great poet's love. At the risk of sounding like a snobby "real" reviewer, let me recommend the kind of readers who will like this book: (in the words of the late Iris Murdoch, another British novelist) "someone who likes a jolly good yarn and enjoys thinking about the book as well, about the moral issues." The key is putting in a little mental effort of your own.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
See all 7 books this book cites
See all 44 books citing this book
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
